Levon of Arkansas

Just one more, please...in honor of Levon Helm. Levon was the only American member of The Band and that’s really nothing to denote I reckon. But he was from Arkansas and to me that makes some difference. Do you know anyone from Arkansas? There’s an unpretentious nature…an air of humility (leave Bill Clinton out of this) that seems to host an Arkansas accent. I have good friends from and a few still in Arkansas and even though my research sample size is small, I stand by my bias.

It’s different…just enough…from the Texas twang. It’s nothing like that south Louisiana marbles-in-your mouth—cultural bouillabaissed obtuse tongue. Or the IQ attenuating “y’all aint from ‘round here are ya?” treacle of the Carolinas’ (the elegant Charleston lowcountry South Carolina accent being an exception).

 I saw briefly last night before the drugs kicked in, a scene from one of those television shows where they trace the ancestors of a celebrity. It was Oklahoma’s own Reba McEntire and she was in England, standing in a 17^th century church graveyard, pondering the interment spot of her seventh great grandfather and his life in Cheshire. A rather staid and stoic English historian was standing beside her and the contrast was, well…American. Reba’s fiery red hair seemed to be the only color amidst the sooty stone Gothic backdrop for her contrived self-reflection. And then she spoke. Let me just say that the Okie accent and Reba energy doesn’t do for a Cheshire graveyard what Levon of Arkansas did for The Band.

What the flip does this have to do with Levon Helm and maybe, if ADG will ever get to it, The Band? Be patient. I know what you are thinking—this is just another one of ADG’s maudlin-mawkish flounderings…shrouded in some kind of regional accent themed wallow. Nope. But I do admit to meandering from time to time. I think that this one American—this Arkansan—Levon Helm, did more than anyone to make valid the eclectically gritty, unpretentious and mixed genre nature of The Band—not that Canadians can’t be gritty and granular. And Levon says that he never really considered himself “a singer.” Are you kidding me? Whose voice do you mostly hear on all of  The Band signature songs?

Have a brief visit with Levon courtesy of the video clip below. Maybe you’ll sense some of the same things about Levon Helm that I have. And just in case you don’t watch the video, here’s a couple of keepers for you…

“Nothing’s a guarantee. It’s the old one day at a time. And that’s the way it’s supposed to be I guess.”

“What’s it like to sing on an album with your daughter?”

“…I wanted to get well enough to do that…”

Cancer, bankruptcy and two Grammys are part of his last decade’s oeuvre but I still intuit a can’t be faked level of gratitude, humility and sincerity in Levon. Levon of Arkansas. Levon—the roux from which The Band was made.

And Levon Helm didn’t drape himself in decorative scarfs.

Onward. ADG II of Old Town. Linguist in a scarf.

To Levon and Choices

Here’s a message from Levon’s wife and daughter. It’s from his website.

“Dear Friends,

Levon is in the final stages of his battle with cancer. Please send your prayers and love to him as he makes his way through this part of his journey.

Thank you fans and music lovers who have made his life so filled with joy and celebration... he has loved nothing more than to play, to fill the room up with music, lay down the back beat, and make the people dance! He did it every time he took the stage...

We appreciate all the love and support and concern.

From his daughter Amy, and wife Sandy”

Levon is gonna know something—probably a lot sooner than most of us. Haughty as hell for me to say so and my arrogance dawns on me amidst these sentences. For all I know, Levon is gonna outlive me. But according to his wife and daughter, Levon has settled into his departure journey.

Choices. Levon had to make some huge ones about a decade and a half ago. Cancer was gonna take his voice—at least the surgeons were gonna take his voice when they carved away the offending visitor. Cancer and the choices demanded by it are perverse that way. Even with all of the advances in cancer treatment, often times a big part of the cure manifests collateral trauma. Scorched earth tactics…Hail Mary’ed at the always pernicious—other times aggressive and high minded visitor.

Levon chose not to be put to sleep while surgeons, scalpels-at the ready, waited to carve on him. Being put to sleep and not knowing who or what you will be--on the other side. Shit. Levon opted for radiation instead of a laryngectomy. Choices. Trade-offs of this magnitude have an uncanny ability to focus the mind—to make shit that was so pressing…so important just fifteen minutes prior to the need for choice—absurdly irrelevant. I’m not a betting man but if I was I’d put my money on the fact that Levon was pleased with his choice. Look at any photo of Levon from the last decade and even amidst his frailty, his light—shines.

Choices. I sent the following email to a friend yesterday and now as I re-read it, it resonates differently amidst the news that Levon, his choices made, is on the home stretch. Here it is…

“It seems to me that it’s about being at peace with your choices—at least that’s how I read it. (it –the email that prompted this—my email in response to my friend) And I’m talking about big choices. Life changing selections—decisions of forever. Most of me says that you’ve made and probably won’t renege on the big decision(s) regarding the necessary changes needed to assure that your journey, your purpose and thus your legacy are best realized. It doesn’t mean they’ve been easy decisions just because you’ve set (hopefully) rather firmly, the thin stakes in the ground and the twine between them that mark the foundation for the better you. Further…

… even though the boundary stakes are set and twine marked—framing the next series of choices—it doesn’t make them painless even in their obviousness. The tactical maneuvering and the cascade—the tumble-down of other decisions, agreements, compromises and sometimes painful trade-offs are the things that you are now amidst. And just because they are all necessary to build the new trajectory, they aren’t always easy.

So I hope that your maneuvering continues, even with fits and starts and hiccups and setbacks, on a positive and purposeful course—so that you too, will be forever mostly complete…or at least happy with your choice.”

So here’s to Levon. And to choices.